The Foundation of our Military’s Competitive Edge

Our military relies on a complex network of roads, buildings, facilities, utilities and land—on and off-base—to provide the critical training and power-projection platforms needed to protect our nation. Our military facilities and the defense communities that support them play a critical role in sustaining the lethality of our forces. A major part of that responsibility is providing a home for 1.1 million service members, their families and countless others who support them.

Defined by a mission of force and family, readiness and resiliency, our defense infrastructure is the foundation of our military’s competitive edge.

With the Trump administration poised to rebuild the military, Congress and the administration are beginning the critical work of creating a more lethal and resilient force. What does this mean for our defense infrastructure? How will we ensure our defense infrastructure remains a powerful force multiplier?

These are the key questions that will bring more than 700 defense community leaders, military representatives and industry experts together for ADC’s 2018 Defense Communities National Summit, the nation’s leading forum on the policy and trends impacting military installations and defense communities

Pre-Conference Session: A How-To Guide for Promoting Compatible Lands: Working with Landowners and Communities to Protect Mission Capabilities and Readiness

The future of sustainment for DoD ranges, training areas, and testing facilities depends upon defining mission requirements and applying innovative policy tools, funding sources, and community partnerships to protect the military’s ability to test, train and operate now and into the future. Mission requirements often include areas outside the installation boundaries that are of critical importance to the military, state and local governments, non-governmental organizations, and private landowners.

This session will provide a better understanding of the variety of tools, resources, and processes available to communities and DoD to more holistically plan and coordinate with states, NGOs, and private landowners to sustain military ranges and thereby provide maximum flexibility for DoD to carry out its mission and improve readiness. Speakers from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment will cover key tools and approaches, including the Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) planning process, Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program partnerships, Mission Assurance Siting Clearinghouse Mission Compatibility Evaluation Process, and natural resource management on and off the installation or range. The session will conclude with local partner’s experiences and benefits to their respective missions and interests.

Robert Hosford, Director of Military Affairs, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and the North Carolina Forest Service

8:30 AM – 11:45 PM

Air Force Community Partnership Program's Policy & Partnership Forum

This interactive forum will focus on Intergovernmental Support Agreement (IGSA) policy and implementation, as well as other policy and partnership issues. This is a unique opportunity for those at the installation-level working with AFCP partnerships to learn from Air Force Partnership SMES through break-out groups with open dialogue and Q&A. This event is only open to Air Force personnel.

Lisa Swoboda, Director, Maryland Office of Military and Federal Affairs

Keith Graf, Director, Texas Military Preparedness Commission

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

OEA 101 / Grant Workshop

Led by key leaders in the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA), this hands-on workshop will provide communities with the know-how on how to apply for OEA grants. A can’t miss boot camp for those looking to work more closely with their installations through a wide-range of mission essential planning activities.

Speakers will be listed soon.

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Preconference Session: The Next Generation of Communication – 5G and the Future of Military Networks and Installation Resiliency

With Fifth generation wireless just coming online (pun intended) there has been a surge of interest in outfitting military installations with the infrastructure required to support this new technology. The hope is that it can kick start “smart” technology and applications both on and off base, providing resilience, creating new efficiency and improving quality of life. This panel will explore how 5G will transform installations and defense communities.

MODERATOR:

John Conger, Former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense

SPEAKERS:

Lawrence Taylor, AVP – Integrated Mobility Sales, AT&T

Chris Woehler, Director for Public Safety Communications Programs and Architecture, Office of the Chief Information Officer

The military services are launching a host of new personnel policies aimed at improving work-life balance for personnel and attracting top talent for hard-to-fill positions in cyber and other specialties. The changes come as the services are growing their end strength at the same time the civilian job market is strengthening. The session will highlight new personnel policies and ones under consideration as DOD focuses on restoring recent declines in readiness.

We know you have made congressional outreach a big part of your trips to DC for the ADC summit in past years, but this year we are going to take it to a new level by leveraging all of your individual efforts. We are proud to introduce Defense Communities Hill Days – a new component of the Defense Communities National Summit. Maximizing our combined influence through coordinated messaging and action, this program will provide a platform for advancing key issues that allow us to ensure our bases and communities remain the foundation of our military’s competitive edge.

Defense Community Hill Days will feature:

State/Community Leader Lunch – Kicking off the summit this year on Monday, June 18 at 12:15 p.m. will be an invite-only special lunch for community and state leaders to receive updates on key issues and ADC’s messaging for Hill visits. We will be joined by Caucus leaders and top experts for an informative session that will get you set for congressional outreach.

Messaging Leave-behinds – ADC will produce common messaging pieces that you can use during Hill meetings, along with your leave-behinds. This will include talking points and ways to integrate your local issues.

Hill Visit Tracker – Through social meeting and a tracker, we will track everyone’s visits and show the collective impact of our membership.

Federal Outreach Town Hall – Wrapping up this year’s summit will be a town hall hosted by ADC’s Federal Outreach Advisory Committee to collect feedback on your meetings and the messaging.

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Opening Keynote Session

Here from top administration leaders in DOD as they outline their vision for our nation’s military installations and missions.

WELCOME:

Bill Parry, President, ADC; City Manager, City of Gatesville, TX

KEYNOTE:

Sec. Phyllis Bayer, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment

FEATURED SESSION: Building Installation Resiliency – What it Means Today

The Pentagon is pushing ahead with plans to protect its assets from sea-level rise and other impacts. With the 2018 NDAA establishing a broad review of the vulnerability of military bases and facilities to climate change, DOD is strengthening its efforts to increase resiliency at installations across the country. This panel will discuss the current efforts underway and what we can expect in the 2019 NDAA to address these issues.

Supporting R&D, technology, manufacturing and other complex missions requires a closely knit web of partners from outside the fence — universities and community colleges, workforce and economic development agencies, and the private sector. Finding the right mix of ingredients to foster technical missions is never easy but smart policies at the federal level can go a long way toward helping communities, regions and states overcome the challenges.

The reserve components continue to take on a larger operational role as military leaders seek to integrate National Guard and reserve forces more closely with the active component. In recent years the Army and Air National Guard have taken on new cyber and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. This panel will look at how the jump in defense funding in fiscal 2018 and 2019 will affect the missions and role of the National Guard and Reserves in the coming years.

The value of the growing commercial drone market is expected to reach billions of dollars over the next 20 years. A market study by Goldman Sachs has estimated that the global commercial unmanned aircraft systems market will reach $100 billion by 2020. Use of drones in infrastructure ($45 billion), agriculture ($32 billion), transportation ($13 billion) and security ($11 billion) are projected to be the largest sectors, according to a recent PwC analysis. This growth will trigger the need for additional infrastructure such as business parks and aviation facilities. Join our panel of experts to understand the opportunities and challenges this redevelopment opportunity poses.

The DoD Real Property enterprise is a $20+ billion/year operation comprising over 580,000 total assets, including ~279,000 buildings containing 2.3 billion square feet, located on ~27 million acres of land, and consuming over $3.5 billion/year in energy. The panel will discuss DOD’s real property reform team (one of nine functionally aligned reform teams) and its emerging themes, the broader DOD, congressional, and administration management reform agendas, and past experience with real estate reform. Finally, it will consider how these prospective reforms could affect defense communities.
MODERATOR:

Representatives from DOD, state and local governments and industry will discuss best practices for ensuring that new energy development projects do not pose potential conflicts with military training and base operations. The panel will cover the various proposals that states are considering, or have enacted, to regulate energy siting development, as well as how language in the fiscal 2018 defense authorization bill will affect the review process conducted by the DOD Siting Clearinghouse.

Col. Bill Myer, Director of Operational Energy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy & Environment

8:00 AM — 9:15 AM

PFOA/PFOS Town Hall

Defense communities are now the frontline for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) growing issues regarding perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfate (PFOS) contamination caused by legacy operations at closed bases and ongoing operations at active installations. The impacts and danger posed by these chemicals through contamination of drinking water supplies is a significant issue for defense communities and is causing economic problems and straining the relationship between bases and their host communities. This Town Hall session will bring together key stakeholders – regulatory, military, and impacted defense communities – to have an open discussion on the problem, community impacts and constraints to addressing this critical issue. We will get a readout on the findings and directives generated from the EPA PFAS Summit. In addition to gaining a better understanding of PFOA/PFOS contamination issues and impacts, the goal of this session will be to explore the ways that installations and communities have and can continue to work together to address this public health concern.

As part of the new National Defense Strategy, Defense Secretary James Mattis has called for an effort to reform Defense Department business practices to achieve greater performance and accountability. Charged with this responsibility is DOD’s newly appointed Chief Management Officer, the Hon. John Gibson II. In this keynote address, Mr. Gibson will brief attendees on his efforts to eliminate inefficiencies within DOD and how this will impact the way installations are managed.

10:15 AM — 10:30 AM

Networking Break

10:30 AM — 11:45 AM

Military Service Town Halls

FEATURED SESSION: Army Town Hall

Hear from top Army installation leaders as they host a town halls specifically for Army community leaders and partners. This is your opportunity to engage with key decision makers and learn what’s in store for each of the services’ installation management offices.

Hear from top Navy & Marine Corps installation leaders as they host a town halls specifically for Navy & Marine Corps community leaders and partners. This is your opportunity to engage with key decision makers and learn what’s in store for each of the services’ installation management offices.

Hear from top Air Force installation leaders as they host a town halls specifically for Air Force community leaders and partners. This is your opportunity to engage with key decision makers and learn what’s in store for each of the services’ installation management offices.

Emergent Contaminants are important because the risk they pose to human health and the environment is not fully understood or documented. At BRAC sites these contaminants present serious challenges and can significantly affect redevelopment potential and timelines. Join this panel to explore the impacts these chemicals present to BRAC sites and possible approaches for mitigating their presence. A case study of the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth, which represents the first transfer of property with known perfluorinated compound contamination via an economic development conveyance, will be presented. Panelists will discuss the path to transfer while addressing risk, stakeholder cooperation and long-term implications.

Join us in recognizing the 2018 Defense Community Leadership Award winners.

1:00 PM — 1:30 PM

Networking Break

Networking break in Summit HQ

1:30 PM — 2:30 PM

Concurrent Sessions

OEA Town Hall

Leadership will share the latest updates on specific programs, upcoming grant opportunities and the office’s plans for 2018/2019

MODERATOR:

Bill Parry, President, ADC; City Manager, City of Gatesville, TX

SPEAKER:

Patrick O’Brien, Director, Office of Economic Adjustment

Future Water – Building the Water Resilience of the Future

Installations face multiple issues in ensuring a reliable supply of drinking water, including aging infrastructure and a dwindling availability of supplies. At some locations, the services are looking to the military’s utilities privatization authority to upgrade their water infrastructure. For installations that rely on aquifers that are drying up, military leaders are looking to regional solutions that require close collaboration with host communities. This session will highlight the various approaches and technologies installations are embracing as they strive to upgrade their water infrastructure and improve their resilience.

MODERATOR:

David Turner, President, Military Services Group, American Water

SPEAKERS:

Marissa McInnis, Program Manager, Water Resources and Climate Resilience, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense For Energy, Installations and Environment

Doug Tucker, Installation Energy Policy & Programs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force

Get Smart! – How Smart Infrastructure Supports Military Resiliency and Economic Development

Recent advances in technology are helping communities build more efficient and environmentally friendlier systems for managing traffic, making adjustments to the electric grid, monitoring water usage and running other municipal activities. For defense communities, the benefits of building “smart infrastructure” extend beyond increasing efficiency and attracting new businesses, to increasing resiliency — for local residents as well as the local military installation. This panel of industry, community and military leaders will provide an introduction to smart infrastructure and explore the benefits it can provide to both communities and installations.

Katherine Hammack, Executive Director, Government & Public Sector, Ernst and Young

Stacey Shepard, Vice President, Buildings & Infrastructure, Jacobs

Lee Conesa, Principal Director, Built Infrastructure Policy and Programs, U.S. Air Force

Jesse Gipe, Senior Manager, San Diego Regional Economic Development Council

A Future Perspective: Resiliency and Regeneration (LRA Track)

Adopting smart growth strategies for core redevelopment and critical infrastructure requires a focus on resiliency and regeneration. This session will explain these concepts and explore how they apply to infrastructure, energy and development projects. This interactive discussion will cover what LRAs may want to consider in strategic plans, along with the use of public-private partnerships (PPP). The panel will feature David Baxter, a senior adviser to the International PPP Resilience Center in New Orleans which is an affiliated organization of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

MODERATOR

Brian Hooker, Executive Director, Fort Mac LRA

SPEAKERS

David Baxter, Infrastructure Procurement and Resiliency Strategist

Seth Kirshenberg, Partner, Kutak Rock

2:30 PM — 2:45 PM

Networking Break

Networking break in Summit HQ

2:45 PM — 3:45 PM

Concurrent Sessions

FEATURED SESSION: The Future of Force Protection and Cyber Security – Is Your Community Ready?

New technologies and community/industry partnerships are changing the way installations are managed, often blurring the physical and communication fence line. While this has been a welcome development for DOD, industry and communities it has come with associated risks to cyber networks, military personnel and critical infrastructure. This panel will focus on the new challenges facing military installations and what new policies DOD are adopting to mitigate current and future threats.

Many communities are looking beyond the fence line of their installations and looking to leverage their military presence into economic development opportunities. This panel will explore the big trends impacting defense industry and what that means for communities and installations.

The military services are relying on a variety of technologies and approaches to ensure installations’ critical mission operations can be sustained during an interruption in the supply of energy, water and other essential base operating support services. The speakers will outline their approaches for achieving installation resilience through comprehensive planning and base master planning efforts, as well as discuss funding strategies for implementing their Installation Resilience Vision.

Marc Kodack, Water Program Manager, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Energy and Sustainability

Opportunity Zones – Is there really a yellow brick road in the world of OZ? (LRA Track)

Please join this timely discussion on opportunity zones (OZs), a new program authorized under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to spur investment in distressed communities. The federal government recently announced the first round of OZ designations in 20 states and 4 territories. . This new designation may lead to the creation of billions of new investment dollars for underserved communities across the United States. What opportunities are created by becoming an OZ and what do LRAs need to know? The panel will discuss the process of designating OZs and how that designation can attract investment to a reuse project, as well as highlight possible disadvantages.

MODERATOR

Russell DeSalvo, President and CEO, PuebloPlex

SPEAKERS

Gregory Clements, CPA, Partner, Novogradac & Company LLP

Scott Norton, Executive Director/CEO, TexAmericas Center

3:45 PM — 4:00 PM

Networking Break

Networking break in Summit HQ

4:00 PM — 5:00 PM

Building Defense Community Readiness Keynote

Keynote Session: Building Defense Community Readiness

How can communities and installations work together to help achieve Secretary Mattis’ goal of restoring ready as and more lethal force? The panel will explore ways communities and military installations can work together to improve readiness by promoting healthier eating and active living, and to become leading examples of military/community partnerships. Questions to be posed to the panelists include: What does it take to be ready to deploy? How are we as communities and military installations supporting the body, mind and spirit?

MODERATOR:

Chuck Milam, former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy

Cooperation between the Defense Department and states and communities extends beyond the hundreds of mutual aid agreements that exist between installations and their surrounding communities. DOD is the federal government’s lead coordinator for public works and engineering requirements, and it also has the authority to provide urgent assistance in response to requests from local officials. This panel will provide a nuts and bolts introduction to the Defense Support for Civil Authorities program and outline the ways DOD bases and their surrounding communities and states can be mutually supportive both before and following natural or man-made disasters and emergencies to promote resiliency and maintain readiness.

As a follow-up to the PFOA/PFOS Forum, this discussion will be an opportunity to discuss the issues, challenges and unanticipated consequences associated with PFOA/PFOS contamination in defense communities and the role of ADC. This will be an open forum to ask questions, share experiences and provide input to ADC.

Open to all ADC members in good standing, this meeting will provide members with an update on ADC activities & financials. Members will also be asked to vote on a slate of candidates for the ADC Board of Directors.

7:30 AM – 8:15 AM

Breakfast Discussions

Engaging the Defense Industrial Base as a Stakeholder in your Community

A positive economic environment shaped by tax overhaul, regulatory reform, a two-year bipartisan federal budget agreement, and an Administration focus on revitalizing domestic manufacturing, has sparked high confidence and soaring optimism amongst American manufacturers. Defense communities are using this opportunity to engage with suppliers in the industrial base to build partnerships that advance national security needs and enhance community relationships. Boosting participation of industrial base providers, such as technology companies, manufacturers, colleges and universities can bring about community solutions that enhance defense infrastructure improvements, research and development programs, or strengthen congressional engagement. A panel of officials from the federal government and private sector will examine the some of the tools and techniques that defense communities are using to expand opportunities to create these partnerships.

MG (Ret) George Patrick, Former Deputy Secretary of Commerce, State of South Carolina

What is a Smart Defense Community and How Do You Get There?

Much of the resources and infrastructure that support Smart Base technologies lie beyond the fence line in the surrounding community. Embracing a holistic that includes both military installations and the communities that support them will be critical to the success of any smart technology development. This panel will examine how communities, installations and industry can work together to create Smart Defense Communities.

This session will bring together energy providers and LRAs to discuss the requirements, approvals and future benefits associated with developing energy islanding projects at BRAC sites. Industry experts will explain the basics of energy islanding and identify elements that are critical to ensuring projects are successful. The panel will highlight example projects and participate in an engaging Q&A session.

What's Next? - The Trends, Politics and Policies that will Define the Year Ahead

FEATURED SESSION: What’s Next? – The Trends, Politics and Policies that will Define the Year Ahead

The FY 2018 NDAA represents the Armed Services committees’ attempt to restore the armed forces shortfall in readiness as well as a first step in growing its force structure. The annual policy bill also continues Congress’ push to reform the Pentagon’s organizational structure and acquisition processes. This session will provide an opportunity for attendees to hear from defense experts about lawmakers’ priorities regarding national security strategy and further expansion of DOD’s force structure.

The energy infrastructure the military services rely on is quickly evolving as leaders push to improve installations’ energy resilience. The services’ strategy calls for a greater emphasis on on-site generation assets, along with microgrids and energy storage. Newly built plants are expected to take advantage of renewables as well as use natural gas and combined heat and power. And on the horizon is a potential shift to an “energy as a service” model, under which a single entity will meet all of an installation’s energy needs. Hear from a panel of senior defense and industry officials about the services’ latest plans for transforming their energy infrastructure.

The Pentagon and lawmakers are pointing to the two-year budget agreement Congress reached in February as a major victory, allowing the military an opportunity to rebuild and restore shortfalls in readiness after almost 17 years of steady overseas deployments while offering planners a predictable funding stream. One of the beneficiaries of the funding boost for fiscal 2018 is the military services’ facility sustainment, restoration and modernization accounts. Hear from a panel of defense experts and military service leaders which programs will benefit from the funding increase and what their priorities will be looking ahead to FY 2019.

Ready Together – Building Collaboration Between Base, Community and States to Support Security Clearance Issues

With a backlog of hundreds of thousands of pending security clearance requests and a wait time that can last extend beyond 12 months, the Pentagon is quickly moving to reform the existing process for conducting background checks. DOD is poised to assume responsibility for its own background investigations and is developing tools that will help automate the process and perform continuous evaluation. This session is designed to provide a forum for installation, community and state leaders to discuss ways they can collaborate to support the changes now under way.

This meeting will be an interactive, open dialogue session with Q&A between community members and AFCP leadership. Stronger communication with our communities is one of the keys to creating a more effective, dynamic program. What are your partnership hurdles and challenges? What are your successes and lessons learned? We want to help encourage what’s working and help with what’s not. Communities and base personnel are invited to this session.

MODERATOR:

Mr. Teran Judd

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM

Networking Break

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Concurrent Sessions

Military Family Policy Town Hall – How to Build Community Support for Military Families

MODERATOR:

Marcus Lingenfelter, Senior Vice President, Edmentum, Inc.

SPEAKERS:

Jocelyn Bissonnette, Director of Government Affairs, National Association of Federally Impacted Schools

Eileen Huck, Government Relations Deputy Director, National Military Family Association

Marcus Beauregard, Director, Defense State Liaison Office, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy

AI, Big Data and Cyber – The Future of Industrial Control Systems on Military Installations and What it Means for Your Base

Industrial control systems are the new front line in cyber warfare for military installations. How installations and supporting utilities protect this critical infrastructure is the key to achieving mission assurance in the face of an increasing tempo of cyber attacks. This panel will focus on the evolving challenges facing these systems, how installations and industry partners are responding, and how community leaders can get involved.

MODERATOR:

David Forbes, Principal, Booz Allen Hamilton

SPEAKERS:

Timothy Jones, Vice President, Administration, Doyon Utilities

Daryl Haegley, Program Manager, Control Systems Cybersecurity, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installation & Environment

Jandria Alexander, Principal, Booz Allen Hamilton

12:00 PM

Summit End

Location / Date For the 2018 National Summit

June 18-20, 2018

Washington Hilton
1919 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20009

The ADC Defense Communities National Summit will be held at the Washington Hilton, located at 1919 Connecticut Avenue in the heart of Dupont Circle, the city’s most vibrant neighborhood. Only limited rooms are available at this time and may not be at the discounted block rate. Click here to check availability.

Overflow Hotel

ADC has secured an additional block of sleeping rooms at the Churchill, conveniently located across the street from the Washington Hilton. Click here to book your room at the Churchill, or call 202-797-2000 and mention the Association of Defense Communities National Summit.

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Showcase your brand. ADC knows that one of the most valuable benefits of our events is networking with your peers. With more than 700 attendees, including DoD and community officials as well as private sector leaders, Summit HQ is the ideal venue to position your community as a strong military and defense community partner